Hosted PBX Guide

I've put together brief summaries of the apparent services provided by the different hosted PBX providers elsewhere on the site, and here's the cut-down who's-who. These aren't the only people out there who do hosted PBX, these are the industry leaders, the ones that stand out in some manner. It's hard to give an overall best, because each company focuses on different customers and provides different features at different prices. But if I were to pit each against the other to give a quick list, I would give you them in this order, for these reasons:

Number One - Virtual PBX

Reliable, knowledgeable, helpful. If I were a newcomer looking to get a PBX system, I'd look at this company first. Their customer service is top notch, they've got excellent reliability, and their features are great. They also have steak and potatoes ACD queues that do everything a queue should do, not just bread and butter hunt groups. Almost every business finds value out of good queues, so this is a big deal. Either small companies looking to get full service at low cost or large companies looking for the most sophisticated systems will be wanting to go with Virtual PBX.

Number Two - GotVMail

Occasionally cheaper than the others, but not as cutting edge quality either. For the company that needs to cut costs, try comparing their prices with the others. If you don't want Virtual PBX and Onebox is too expensive, GotVMail is probably the right choice. Since the modern economy is all about cost reduction, they've got the place over Onebox - for now. If you're a mid-to-large company who wants a hosted PBX and needs to spend less money, GotVMail might be the right choice.

Number Three - Onebox

If you who need quality service but don't like Virtual PBX, or if you need outgoing fax service as part of your hosted PBX but still demand full feature sets, I'd advise Onebox over VirtualPBX. Just be sure you want to spend the minimum of $50 a month for a small business.

Number Four - FreedomVOICE

For those of you who only want basic services, need a voicemailbox, have a lot of money to throw around, or require recordings of your calls, FreedomVOICE is probably a solid choice. They get expensive if you want all their features, and be aware that they charge twice for inbound phone calls.

Number Five - Ringcentral

While not a ‘bad' company, Ringcentral lags behind in service and support. Their marketing strategies feel mildly deceptive, and their services are basic. If you want the budget PBX then check their prices, and if they happen to be cheaper than GotVMail, you might consider it. Be careful of the need to sign up for annual contracts to get the best price, and check into the fine print on all provided services thoroughly so that you aren't surprised to not be receiving what you expected. All that said, they do still provide what they are offering, and there's no major complaints with their actual system.

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